HIV/AIDS AWARENESS/EDUCATION
When relatives see that the parents of the OVCs have died of AIDS, they do not attach any value on the children because they think they are HIV positive as well.
The most productive people aged 18-45 years old have been swept away.
The family structure has been torn down leaving many children without parents. They have been left to live with their grandparents or other relatives and others without anywhere to find refuge. According to UNAIDS, Widowed mothers and elderly widowed grandmothers are the predominant heads of households. 
The children and women have been mostly affected. All orphans are exposed to difficulties; however certain age groups are more susceptible to circumstances especially from ages 2-12 years old.
This is the major contributing factor to street children, prostitution, child headed families, child labor, HIV/AIDS infection, child soldiers, rebel factions, poverty, refugees, internally displaced persons and criminality.
The Ugandan extended family system, like many other developing countries, has been the core support provider for such victims; however, combined with other social and economic pressures these families have been pushed to breaking point.
Tender Mercies Outreach Foundation answers the call that these innocent children are making. With Programs such as Child welfare, Youth Development, Women Empowerment, safe water, hygiene and sanitation as well as Sickle cells, we believe to cover the most affected areas, which are the mother and child.
The family unit seems to rely a lot on the state of the mother and child. We also reach out to the needy and orphaned children seeking to settle them in a decent home environment and also give them the golden opportunity of going to school.
The investment made in these children at a tender age goes a long way in securing a future for them.
800 children have benefited through direct and indirect support from Tender Mercies Outreach Foundation.
The need is by far greater than this and we would like to assist as many children as we are able to. We believe in changing one life at a time, one community at a time. 
Tender Mercies Outreach Foundation is actively involved in addressing the epidemic by promoting HIV/AIDS awareness through work-shops, seminars, conferences, radio and television programs as well as presentations to church groups, women’s clubs and school assemblies.
